OMG: New fines in Va. legislation combats texting while driving

Those consumed by texting might type out "OMG" (oh my gosh) when they see the new fines in a Virginia law that combats texting while driving and is awaiting the governor's signature.

Years of sparring by special interest and safety groups finally wore down legislators in Richmond, as the House of Delegates and the Senate in the session that ended Saturday passed a new law upgrading texting while driving from its secondary law status to a primary violation.

House Bill 1907 also calls for stiffer penalties to pinch the pockets of motorists convicted of distracted driving by texting, increasing a fine for a first offense from $20 to $250, and $500 on a second or subsequent violation, according to the law language. The law also includes a mandatory $500 fine for those texting at the time of a reckless driving offense.

While Gov. Bob McDonnell is reviewing the bill for final consideration, his spokesman, Tucker Martin, told the Richmond Times Dispatch last week that McDonnell continues "to have concerns about beginning to list more specific activities that are prohibited while driving."

McDonnell said Virginia's current reckless driving statutes, covering a multitude of activities behind the wheel, is adequate in addressing texting while driving.

Yet a local law enforcement officer said that since the original legislation passed in 2009, catching guilty parties texting from behind the wheel has been rare.

"To be honest, and in my opinion only, the law now is almost unenforceable," Capt. Darryl Milligan of the Bristol Virginia Police Department said. "It's secondary now, so you have to have a specific reason for pulling over the motorist and you have to have proof that texting contributed to or was a separate violation to the original charge."

According to the Virginia Crime Commission, the number of citations and convictions for texting while driving have increased over the past three years, including in 2012 when 511 tickets were written for the violation and 414 guilty pleas were recorded in court.

Drive Smart Virginia, an automotive safety advocacy group based in Richmond, plans to meet with McDonnell and his policy team to work out any misconceptions the governor might have about this new texting law, agency Executive Director Janet Brooking said.

"The purpose will be to explain to him why we feel like the law is so important to us and other Virginia residents," Brooking said.

"The primary law will give law enforcement the tools they need to enforce this. Right now, texting while driving is really not enforceable. We are lucky in Virginia to have the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, who have published the leading studies on this subject. One of their studies showed that while you text and drive, you are 23 times more likely to be in a crash," Brooking said.

"Texting is the most dangerous distraction out of all they listed, and that included eating, changing the radio and other things. None of them approach that degree of danger," she said. "In general, 80 percent of crashes nationwide are due to distracted driving and 60 percent lead to near crashes. This is a huge problem and clearly, people are dying on Virginia roads because of this. They are not paying attention and focusing on the job of driving."

Milligan added that texting while driving should be penalized just like a seat belt law.

"Yes, some say it is a personal choice when they are inside their vehicle, but when the statistics show putting on a seat belt greatly increases your safety and could save your life in a crash, how you can ignore that? Sometimes the argument doesn't hold up and people know that doing something like texting or talking on a cell phone is going to lead to something terrible down the road," Milligan said.